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Good gameplay, fun minigames, World Tour mode drags a bit

Virtua Tennis 2009 is a a fun game to play and the Wii version is probably the best version to play, thanks to the wii controls.

There are essentially a number of ways to play this game:

Wiimote only: The game plays in a similar way to wii tennis, the players move automatically and you have to time your swings to determine which way to hit it. You can press up or down to alter net or base play

Wiimote + Nunchuck: As above, except players are controlled using the nunchuck

Wiimote + WM+: Player moves himself but the user has to angle the wiimote for more accurate shots, rather than it being timing based

The tennis action is satisfying to play no matter which configuration you use, but it is slightly harder to play when you're at the top of the screen. Lefties may be disappointed since there is only 1 dedicated left-hander (Nadal) and so this can make for a confusing experience.

The World Tour mode is the main play mode, requiring you to increase your ranking in tournaments and to play fun minigames. This feels like it needs a bit of tuning since it takes a long time to progress. There is also network mode which will pair you up with suitable opponents .

Overall, this is a good tennis game and makes good use of the wii motion plus add-on.

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Verging on Chump for me!

I enjoy my Wii and I enjoy tennis, so I thought this could be a good addition to my collection. Virtua Tennis 2009 is the latest in the long running Sega series. For those familiar with the series it will be like slipping on a pair of well worn in slippers as the set up and in particular the career mode is much like previous incarnations.

In the career mode you can decide the look for your player, the train them up using a variety of mini games and practice matches to climb the ranks. You can then take him on some minor tournaments and eventually climb to the dizzy heights of the Grand Slams. On your way you can team up with other characters to play doubles tournaments as well.

There is a selection of well known faces such as Murray and Nadal who you can play in non career mode, and eventually as you climb the ranking in career mode you will be facing these gladiators of tennis.

The graphics and stadia are nice to look at, but what about gameplay? Well it's a funny system which kind of works. If you have played any other tennis game on the Wii, especially EA's Grand Slam Tennis then the control system will feel very odd indeed. Its not necessarily about how hard you swing the racket, more about when. You are given a bar on screen with a line in the middle. If you hit it when the moving bar hits the middle bar then the ball goes straight. To the left of the bar it goes left and to the right, right. The speed of the moving bar depends on how fast your opponent hits it to you. It's a complicated thing to get a grip of at first and to me doesn't seem like the best way to control a tennis game on the Wii

Overall its fun but the control system lets it down. Three stars!

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I was expecting more

Viruta tennis 2009 is a new tennis game in the Viruta series and the first on the Wii to use the new motion plus accessory. There are a total of 23 players to choose from, 11 male players, 9 female players and 3 male legends. Some of the played include Andy Murray, Federer, Nadal, Venus Williams and the legends; Tim Henman, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg.

The main single player mode on the game is the world tour mode. In this you start of as a rookie and are taken on by a trainer to teach you how to perform all the different tennis shots to help you make your way through the tournaments. When you start there is a diary with all the tournament dates and upcoming matches which you can attend. There are usually about 2 per week, the other days are generally for resting as after a tournament your energy bar goes down so you can rest which can take up different periods of time.The downside of the single player mode is that it takes a long time before you can become a professional. You start at rank 100 of the rookies, then once reaching number one can reach rank 100 of the professionals, so to get the top ranking can take a really long time, and playing lots of tournaments can become repetitive after a while.

These are also lots of stuff to unlock during the world tour mode such as new clothes and rackets which can be brought from your prize money. There are also some minigames that you play during the world tour mode which you have to reach the different levels of. For example in one of the mini games larges tennis balls are rolled down a slope and also some fruit, you have to avoid the ball and get the fruit. This is meant to test you foot movement. Other games more tennis related include aiming practice. However most of the mini games are a bit silly with cartoonish looking farm animals in them and they seem out of place in the game. I think the mini games should be an extra separate from the main game, as opposed to part of the world tour.

The motion sensor uses the motion plus which makes it more accurate. Movements are more realistic to the ones you makes than the likes of wii sports however one you have gotten used to the game you may find yourself making movements more like a flick of the wrists than actual tennis movements. But it is still one of the more realistic tennis games out there.

The graphics are only ok. There players don't have much expression and seem rather bland. The overall graphics are quite smooth with some grainy edges, but they are good enough that they don't ruin the game and the ball is easy enough to see, although I found the movement didn't seem right sometimes, but for most part was good.

The biggest problem I have with this game is the multi-player (not online multi-player, but 2+ people using the same console multi-player). The problem with it is that you can't play it split screen, which means when playing against each other, one player is playing from behind their player while the other is facing them from the front, so the controls are the opposite way round and so has a major disadvantage. This seems absolutely stupid to me to not have included split screen, it's the only way you can play it and still be able to enjoy. The only way you can play 2 player properly on this game is if you play together at doubles against the computer.

Overall I feel I may have moaned about the game quite a bit, it's not a terrible game, but it's not as great game either, and I had quite high expectations for it. The single player matches are good and while movements may not be completely realistic, they are good enough to enjoy the game, but the multiplayer really lets it down. With the long time it takes to advance, you will spend ages at the beginning before you face a real challenge.This is probably one of the better tennis games for the Wii, but it really is only for tennis fans, not for fans of Wii Sport.

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Virtua Tenis Wii 2009

I love being tennis on the Wii. I generally play the tennis game on the Wii Sports but decided to try a new tennis game and so picked up a copy of Virtua Tennis 2009 for Wii. Unfortunately though I really did not like it and did not find it as good or as fun as tennis on Wii Sports. Virtua Tennis is apparently the world's number 1 tennis series

This game is compatible with the Wii Motion Plus which allows for a more realistic movement whilst playing tennis so I was excited about this fact. I was hoping it was going to be just like playing real tennis in the comfort of my own living room. I have to say that you do definitely get a more realistic playing movement but it is quite sensitive so sometimes just a little movement of the remote will mean that you miss the ball instead of being able to hit it. Serving is quite good as you flick your wrist and then get a bar that comes up on the screen which lets you gauge where the ball is going to go.

I found the menu in this game very hard to navigate and I have to say I was never quite sure if I was in the right place and sometimes I was not even able to find a tennis match to play. You can pick a player that you want to play with and the computer allows you to develop it yourself. For example you can pick their face, hair colour, height and weight etc. You can also go into the tennis store where you can purchase clothes or sports accessories.

The game features a Global Map which is kind of like the home base where you go to access all the options available to you but I found it hard to access some of the options as it would not let me into some games or tournaments.

The part of the game I did like was the court games where you could play fun silly little games to practice your tennis strokes. For example you can play Court Curling where you play with curling stones or Zoo Feeder where food is throw over the net by zoo keepers to feed their animals.

The game is a 3+ but I have to say not a very fun game to play.

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Great game

Virtua Tennis 2009 as you can tell by the name is a tennis game, which is suitable from ages from 3 and over. All your favourite tennis players up until 2009 can be found in the game. If there are any recent tennis players I really doubt they would be in the game, but you could always check.

The game is it a bit to easy for you to play, but mind it really is fun, especially when you play with others as 2 player as then it just makes the whole level more funnier. The tennis minigames are really smart and and entertain you for hours on end, that is unlike the normal mode which is so easy to win, even on the hard mode. I suppose the game is aimed for at little children more than adults, as it is made from Sega which is aimed at small audience.

It has wi fi enables in the game so as long as you have that cable of a wireless router you can play online across the world, including your friends. You can easily access your friends and play them instantly if you have there friend code, and if you do when they come online a notification will pop up on the screen.

To win the championships in the game it will take you roughly less than 8 hours, as it is so easy to achieve. The graphics in the game are pretty good, so I cannot say any disadvantages about them, it is on the Wii, so I suppose the game on the PS3 would have even better graphics though I got the game on the Wii first so have no intention to get the PS3 version.

Overall I do believe the minigames are the best part of the game. They let you compete in a number of wild activities, from playing billiards to destroying falling blocks, and are easily the most exciting part of this otherwise bland experience. Each of the 12 minigames has eight difficulty levels, and they get mighty hard as you get deeper into the challenge. It's a shame that it takes so long to unlock all of them, because they are more engaging and satisfying than the real tennis action. Each has you use your racket to clear events that don't relate to real tennis, and it's silly fun to try to feed a hungry penguin a fish (by slapping the fish right at the penguin's gaping beak) or to nudge a curling stone into 200-point territory. Even though the reward for completing these is meager at best, it's still easy to get lost in their wackiness for a few hours as you avoid the drudgery of the main tournaments.

There are only basic moves when in the game, doing a double serve and normal to the right and to the left, would be better though as it is Sega if they could put some fantasy into it and maybe like a dream ball serve and make it go so fast.

Anyway currently you can buy the game for £29.74 from amazon. Pretty good game, and if you have a Wii it is definitely recommended.

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Fantastic game, well worth the money, great fitness for the cold weather.

I have always been a big fan of the Virtua Tennis series, ever since it was an arcade game. I always thought the graphics were very realistic, and the gameplay was astounding. I originally had this game for the PS2 many moons ago and the crossover from arcade to console was brilliant, because it included so much more than just the basic game. There were challenges, different tournaments to opt into, weekly rests to be taken into account, and games like knocking down 10 pins by serving a ball was a genius idea.

When I found out that the Virtua Tennis series was coming to the Wii, it was another one of those moments where you say to yourself "I have to have this game". With it being released at the same time as the official EA Sports Tennis simulation, the choice was a little more difficult than I first imagined. But after seeing the adverts for both games, I opted for the Virtua Tennis game, and I wasn't disappointed.

Like previous incarnations of the game, the major playable feature is the world tour, in which you start as a rookie, and you enter tournaments for the lesser minions of the tennis world, and pit your skills against them to slowly crawl up the rankings. The higher up the rankings you reach, the more tournaments you can enter, and the better the opposition gets. If a week goes by that you cannot enter a tournament, then you can improve your skills, footwork, stamina, etc by going into training, where you can practice serving, hitting balls at walls/into goal nets. This is the part of the game that I enjoy the most because this is where you can hone your strokes down to a tee with no added pressure. In this mode, you also have the chance to play doubles tournaments. If you impress other players, they will invite you to join them in some tournaments. I like the doubles matches loads because they give another dimension to the gameplay and it allows you to learn about what shots top go for and correct tactics to use.

The gameplay for the Wii is much better than for the "Wii Tennis" game that is on the Wii Sports disc. The accuracy is a lot better, you can time your shots to be played earlier or later, depending on where you want to send the ball and have a chance of wrong-footing your opponent, you can lob your opponent or play a drop shot to leave them scrambling towards the net, which brings another dimension to the game.

The training mode teaches how to do all these different shots, and you can't progress to the next one until you achieve the specified target, which can get a bit annoying if you are trying to perfect a shot that is ridiculously hard to perform.

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A fantatsic sports game that really is well worth getting!

Having been really really impressed with the Wii tennis on Wii sports I decided rather like with the golf that I wanted to get a dedicated game to the sport, so to speak. I recently saw the advert for Virtua Tennis 2009 for the Wii and thought that it looked ideal for what I wanted, a tennis game for the Wii offering something more. Having played on this game for hours and hours now I can honestly tell you that it is just a wonderful game. The gameplay is quite easy to pickup and the different levels of difficulty make it suitable for all levels of ability.

I was most impressed by the graphics because having played on the Wii tennis game, the graphics are just uncomparable in one sense. I also really liked the 2 play game mode as this is just ideal to play with your family and friends. As a game I would really recommend it although having bought this for £35 or so from Amazon, I must admit it did seem rather expensive. But never the less this is a great game and well worth a try, especially with all of the different game modes! I hope this was useful and thank you very much for reading this!

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The best Tennis Game Ever

When I first played on a Nintendo Wii the game that really caught my imagination was tennis on Wii Sport, it felt realistic and was the only game that really got me sweating and thinking. Well I was really excited when this game was announced having played previous Virtua Tennis games on the Xbox 360.

When you start this game, you have the option of playing a World Tour Mode, exhibition games or simply to practice and learn, as with any game I'd suggest practicing as it is really important to understand the controls before playing.

In practice mode a realistic creation of Tim Henman talks you through all the moves from serving to lobs to topspin shots and backhand winners, persevere as it can be difficult getting your head around it, use the wii paddle to hit shots, use the nunchuck to move the player and use the A and B buttons to add power to your shots, its just understanding your player movement and getting the subtlety of the shots right that takes time.

The graphics are great with really good movement, the players look very much like their real personas and even display their little ticks and traits, this is one of the best things about the game, playing with good graphics and a realistic looking court and ball movement adds to the fun over the previous fun graphics used in Wii Sport.

This game is better than Wii Sport as you do really get the chance to play a wide variety of shots, there are a wide range of world class players to play as from the Williams Sisters to Federer and Nadal and most of the other top 10 players. Gameplay is realistic and when you do get the hang of it, you'll be having some great battles. I feel it is really benefiting my fitness playing this game, its fun and good exercise and it looks great.

My favourite mode is the World Tour, you start at the bottom being 100 out of 100 and gain experience points for training and completing challenges and winning games, the more you win the better you become trading experience points for more skills, you can also unlock new skills. You play each week and have to watch your stamina, if it falls too low you end up in hospital so buy energy drinks and holidays to stay fresh to win more matches, there are plenty of championships to win although Wimbledon is sadly lacking.

I love playing tennis matches with real characters, the career mode is a real challenge and building up a world star from the beginning is great fun, it can get a bit repetitive occasionally but the players get better and that means the games get more fun as you have to try harder to win.

I liked playing as Andy Murray to try and help a Brit finally win something, I'm slowly getting there and thoroughly enjoying it, its great value at £24.99 through Amazon. You can also play it using the new Wii Motionplus which is supposed to add spin and slice to shots and could make it even better.

For me this is the best tennis game I've ever played, it has more depth and playability than any Wii game I've played before and I look forward to seeing how they develop it further in the future.